Roughly last May at Google’s “I/O” developer conference, the company introduced an updated version of its desktop Maps experience. Since that time, it has been in “preview,” allowing users to go back and forth between the “classic” and new versions. Today, it’s coming out of preview and soon will be the default PC Google Maps […]
Yahoo has bought nearly 30 companies since Marissa Mayer took over as CEO. A large number of those were talent acquisitions — though not all of them. Among the product or technology acquisitions, Aviate could turn out to be one of the most strategic and important. Emphasis on the word “could.” Aviate presents itself as an “intelligent […]
You’re gonna say to yourself, “That looks a lot like Google’s local search results.” I’m talking about the latest interface change that Yahoo has announced: the display of local business information alongside search results. The local business info includes basic business information, photos, hours of operation and some data specific to the business type — […]
Yesterday, Google launched a new design of the stock quotes “card” at the top of its search results. The new card dropped links to competing financial websites, something Google previously had in place since 2000. But after attention was drawn to the fact, Google quietly restored the links. Google Operating System noted the change and […]
Google is now dynamically changing the top search menu/filters based on the search query entered by the searcher. So now, what options you see at the top might differ or be in a different order based on the query you enter into Google’s search box. A Google spokesperson told us this based on noticing that […]
Google flipped the switch this morning on a new design for its Google Alerts emails. The change brings Google Alerts closer in line with Google’s general aesthetic. The emails now have a similarly clean look-and-feel to the card-style layout that’s becoming so prevalent in Google search results, Google Now, on Google’s mobile apps and elsewhere. […]
On the heels of a very recent iOS Maps update, Google has further updated and optimized its search app for iOS 7. Some of the changes are cosmetic: “iOS 7 styling and true full screen browsing” for example. There’s also improved image search for the iPad and better integration with Google Maps. Google Now also seems more […]
Google has confirmed they are running a user interface in the search results to show images within the web search snippets. Reader, Samuel Edwards from Tenthwave Digital sent us a screen shot of this unusual Google search results test. A Google spokesperson confirmed this is indeed one of Google’s many tests. Here is a picture […]
The (relatively) new Google Maps is certainly visually richer than the old Maps UI. However it may be somewhat less functional. As one example, it eliminates one of my favorite and most-used features: “search nearby.” It’s now also somewhat harder to access multiple results on a category query, ironically. Yesterday, Google Operating System spotted a […]
Google is continuing to tweak the Google Shopping experience ahead of the holidays. With its sights set on Amazon, this week, the search engine announced a new set of features for consumers. Whether searching on a desktop, tablet or smartphone, the product previews stay within the main screen for quick access to detail information. After […]
Google is known to run hundreds of experiments a year and often we pick up on some of those experiments and report back on them over here. Many of those experiments have to do with the user interface and how Google makes small tweaks to the layout, design, fonts and colors to see what type […]
Twitter announced they have improved the search capabilities on the iOS and Android mobile apps. Twitter added: A toggle between top Tweets and all Tweets A new photo search filter Photo search results layouts for grid and list view Filter tweets by people you follow A new trending timeline in Discover shows you trends along […]
Once the leader and innovator in online mapping, MapQuest has fallen pretty far from that perch. While the brand survives and the site is still widely used, it has for several years been overshadowed by rivals including Google and more recently Apple. According to recent comScore data MapQuest’s mobile apps aren’t in the top 15, although […]
The bold yellow “Ad” icon that started showing up in Google search results on smartphones in September, now appear to be getting a test run in the UK. This weekend, Ashley Williams, SEO Project Lead at Summit Media in the UK, noticed the icon appearing in the SERPs for every query he performed on his […]
A new flavor of AdWords form extensions has been spotted. It’s a site search box, and according to Google, this test is related to the drop-down navigation extension seen in August. Users can perform an internal site search of the advertiser’s web site right from the search results. After users types in a search query […]
Today, Microsoft unveiled a new ad unit for branded search called Hero Ads. The new units are appearing on select exact match brand queries in Smart Search on Windows 8.1. Consider these ads as the front window or as David Ku, Microsoft VP of engineering referred to them, “a brand’s effective home page on the […]
Google has rolled out a new campaign daily budget estimator for campaigns with the “limited by budget” alert in AdWords. Sergey Rusak of WordStream tweeted the new pop-up view earlier today. New graph when you click a "Limited by budget" message in Google AdWords. @victorpan @larrykim @WordStream pic.twitter.com/uhAOJ7TdVb — Sergey Rusak (@SergeyRusak) October 28, 2013 […]
Google is yet again experimenting with the snippet display in the search results. Google Operating System noticed Google bringing back a test from 2011, where they replaced the URL in the snippets with the site name. Here is a picture of how the Google search results look without the URL but with the site names: […]
Google has started rolling out a new logo and Web UI design. The logo is now integrated into the navigation bar and the green has been stripped away. Rick Galan tweeted this screenshot: The new AdWords logo and menu reflect the move toward flat design that Google recently adopted with its flagship logo. Here’s the current/old […]
Google sure does love its new card-based information display. They’re the primary display for Google Now information. They’re part of Google’s new unified design on mobile devices. They’re how all information is displayed on Google Glass. They’ve been spotted in the wild displaying Google News results, too. And now they’re part of the new (still […]
Yahoo rolled out a newly designed search experience for iOS users today. According to the company, the new design mirrors the PC search update Yahoo launched earlier this year. Now, instead of the previous Yahoo Search tabs, users on iOS mobile devices will see a navigation bar that disappears when a they begin to scroll. […]
Google has just rolled out their new “more unified design” of displaying search results for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablet devices. As expected, Google said A new “more unified design” will offer “cleaner and simpler, optimized for touch, with results clustered on cards so you can focus on the answers you’re looking for.” Here […]
Google’s Knowledge Graph is a little smarter today with the addition of filters and a way to compare two Knowledge Graph items side-by-side. These are some of the Google search updates that the company announced today at a media event celebrating its 15th birthday, and explained in more detail on Google’s Inside Search blog. Knowledge […]
The testing is over. Google has confirmed its plans to add a new app launcher to the main Google navigation bar that will give users quicker access to other Google products. It’s the same grid-style app launcher that many users will already recognize from Android devices and Chromebook computers. Google has been testing this nav […]
This evening, Microsoft announced and has started to roll out a range of new features for Bing — some cosmetic, some more structural. Prominent among them is a new logo and identity, which is symbolic of Bing’s deeper integration across the Microsoft’s products and devices. The company has devoted a lengthy blog post to the […]
Bing is running an experiment with their deep links in the search results. Now Bing is testing displaying sub or secondary level deep links for some search results. That means that under a search listing that has deep links, you may see additional sub-level deep links beneath the main deep links. Here is a picture […]
Keep an eye out for a new look Google is testing for mobile AdWords ads. In the screenshot below, you’ll likely first notice the new eye-catching yellow ad icon next to the display URL. The bright new label replaces the much more subtle “ad” that rests next to the “i” icon in the current design. […]
Yelp quietly made a pretty big expansion of its search capabilities on iOS within the past week. The company’s latest iOS app update included a new photo viewer, increased visibility of bookmarked businesses, improvements to review highlights … and about 15 new search filters that should make it easier for users to find the specific […]
Bing announced some upgrades to Bing Video search. The upgrades include additional search filters, larger video thumbnails, pop-out hover previews and video overlay and improved navigation. New filters – Allow people to easily filter through video content categories by length, date, resolution and source. Bigger video thumbnails – Larger thumbnails make it easier for people […]
Aaron Wall shared a picture on Twitter of a new experiment Bing is trying out by showing deep links directly in the search box results. When possible, Bing likes to show answers and structured data directly as you type in their search box. But this is the first time I am seeing Bing show “deep […]
Google is reportedly testing a new tablet design and interface for their search results. Spotted first by Techno-Net, the new tablet design is going with that card style interface. So when you search, the results are laid out in boxes or cards of information. This goes along well with the tests Google deployed for mobile […]
Microsoft’s Ping Jen has posted a look at upcoming changes to Bing Ads Editor, the desktop tool for managing Bing Ads campaigns. The changes include an updated user interface (UI) and faster data uploading. The UI updates are designed to make the editor align with “what you’re already familiar with.” In other words, your “muscle […]
Google is testing a new search feature within the search results to show you a search result snippet overlay with additional details about that search result. The interesting fact is that this overlay doesn’t have text from the search result itself, the text may be sourced from Wikipedia or other third-party sources. Techno-Net first spotted […]
In response to our post yesterday about the often-invisible background shading on ads in the search engine results, Derrick Connel, Corporate Vice President of Bing Program Management at Microsoft, followed up with Danny Sullivan on Facebook to say: As a small comment on Bing — the ads have 2 design elements for mainline ads. We […]
A few weeks ago, Barry Schwartz reported that Yahoo was testing ad background colors — a pale green instead of pale blue. The search engines frequently test ad background colors in the SERPs. Google has tested blue, green, purple, and yellow variations. What struck me in looking at the Yahoo test, though, was how faint the background colors on […]
Google is testing a new design for their organic search results sitelinks. The new sitelinks are showing for some searchers, although I am not able to see them myself. The screen shot above, provided by +Jon Cooper shows the a grid of four main sections of the web site. clicking on a section seems to […]
Are Google’s search results getting too ad-heavy and leading back to Google’s own content too much? A new blog post suggesting that Google’s non-paid listings make up only a tiny fraction of the entire search results page has sparked some discussion, though the exact percentage actually varies on how you count what’s on the page […]
Facebook has started rolling out Graph Search to all US English users, a move that comes about seven months after the product first launched to a small number of users in mid-January. Graph Search has gone through some changes since then, perhaps none more obvious than when Facebook changed the search box white to make […]
Aaron Bradley spotted a new look for the Google News OneBox results, as you would see them in the Google web search results. The new design for the news results in the web search results look more like “Cards” that Google has been using within their Google Now and mobile views. Here is a screen […]
Google Operating System reports Google is testing showing larger photos in the News OneBox Google Web results page. Often, when you search for news related topics in Google.com, Google will show news results at the top, middle or bottom of the results. This is part of Google’s universal search launch from years ago. Often, the […]